Policy drain

Monday

Feb 25, 2013 at 6:00 AM

The battle over cleaning up the Blackstone River is unlikely to end anytime soon, and we hope all parties — including judges who periodically issue rulings relevant to that fight — paid attention to two recent items that illustrate the contradictions inherent in public policies aimed at cleaning the waterway.

Two weeks ago, the annual Blackstone Watershed Water Quality Report Card was issued, showing that nonpoint sources along the river continue to present a challenge to the Blackstone’s health. Everything from agricultural runoff, animal and human waste, lawn fertilizer and detergents play a role, adding to the nutrient loads that adversely affect water quality all along the river’s length and make it exceedingly difficulty to meet water quality standards by the time measurements are made at the end of the line in Rhode Island.

These annual reports actually highlight why EPA policy that focuses on ever more stringent limits on the Upper Blackstone plant is misguided. The plant has spent millions of dollars on improvements, and is close to meeting EPA-mandated limits of 0.1 milligrams per liter (mgl) for phosphorus and 5 mgl for nitrogen.

But as the water report shows, the problem isn’t limited to the Upper Blackstone.

Last week, we saw a second example of the EPA’s double standard. While Worcester remains in the legal crosshairs, the EPA gave an award for excellence to the Uxbridge wastewater treatment plant, a facility whose permit limits are more forgiving than in Worcester — 0.2 mgl for phosphorus, and 8 mgl for nitrogen.

Uxbridge may be doing a fine job running its plant, and its flows are significantly less than than those coming from the Upper Blackstone. Nonetheless, it is ironic and unhelpful for the EPA to be handing out awards for an operation that is held to a lower standard while suing a city that is very close to meeting a significantly stricter standard.

EPA officials need to step back and take a broader and more reasoned look at exactly what is driving their policy along the Blackstone River.

The real dimensions of the problem are hardly limited to the Upper Blackstone plant. They extend more than 40 miles, through more than a dozen communities in two states.

Setting ever lower nutrient limits for the Upper Blackstone and pursuing punitive enforcement actions will cost everyone many millions of dollars. What it won’t do is achieve what appear to be the perhaps impossible targets set by bureaucrats and environmentalists.